People

John Tavener is a gentle sort of chap - the Catholic Herald this week found him relaxing on a trampoline - but his latest choral work, to be premiered at Westminster Cathedral on Tuesday, seems to have stirred up a hornets' nest of angry Catholics. The work, The Beautiful Names, is a reflection on the 99 names for Allah and its production at the cathedral - a venue suggested by Prince Charles, who commissioned the work - has caused outrage among those of the faithful who think the building is being taken over by Islamists. One letter writer,
Daphne McLeod, has spluttered about the cathedral being desecrated and honouring a false god. Fortunately, there will be no such problems at the second performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, at the Istanbul international music festival, where Sir John will become only the second non-Turk to receive a lifetime achievement award.

Julian Lloyd Webber has chosen a poignant work as his contribution to Sunday's Human Rights Watch gala performance at the Royal Court Theatre. He will be performing Benjamin Britten's serenata from his first suite for cello, written for Lloyd Webber's mentor, Mstislav Rostropovich, who died recently. The Russian cellist's support for human rights during the Soviet era - he sheltered Alexander Solzhenitsyn - is well remembered. Others taking part include Tom Stoppard and Ben Okri, and Julie Christie will make her first British stage appearance in 12 years to read a Somali widow's account of fleeing war in Mogadishu.

What is Virgin boss Richard Branson up to? His stores are offering a promotion for the DVD of the film Hot Fuzz which promises free Orange Sim cards. Does the boss know?

It's a long way from Battersea to Buckingham Palace via New York, but the Queen has paid a long-overdue tribute to the blind south London-born jazz pianist George Shearing by bestowing a knighthood on him. Shearing, 87, was the youngest of nine children, born to a coalman and a cleaner. He moved to the US 60 years ago and has played with just about everyone from Nat King Cole to Mel Tormé, as well as before presidents Ford, Carter and Reagan. He will not officially be able to use his title because he became an American citizen in 1956. He plans to visit his sisters Dorothy, 97, and Margaret, 94, who still live in Battersea, while he's over here.